Anglican church leaders are insisting their schools must become more inclusive, even if means turning away the children of Christian families. But their Catholic counterparts say they cannot do this, pleading poverty and staff shortages Almost 829,000 pupils are educated in Roman Catholic schools in England and Wales and some RC schools already take children from other faiths or none.

But the Catholic Education Service has said it sees no need for new faith schools to be obliged to take in a certain percentage. This week Oona Stannard, its director, said: “We could not provide additional places on top of what we currently offer.

“We would have neither the money for the additional building nor, perhaps even more importantly, the appropriate staff to enable these to be Catholic schools.”

Research by recruitment analyst John Howson reveals that Catholic schools are twice as likely to re-advertise a senior post as their secular peers. The Church now has plans to offer cut-price accommodation in presbyteries as a recruitment ploy.

Ms Stannard spoke as the Commons debated an amendment which would have forced church schools to take a quota of other faiths or none.

She said: “There seems to be a misconception among some that Catholic schools are rather like little isolated educational islands that do not mix with others. Nothing could be further from the truth.” She said Catholic schools were keen to work in partnership and for the common good.

But Ms Stannard said: “If 25 per cent of places in any Catholic school had to be available to children of other faiths or none, we would mostly have to increase our provision to ensure sufficient places for displaced Catholics.

“The demand for places in our schools from the Catholic community is often high, outstripping what we can provide.

“Rejecting even more Catholics from the places that they have funded and nutured over so many years would cause considerable pain.”